It's Miller time: Former Venice QB Anthony Miller is now a dual threat for Riverview High

SARASOTA — While other players caught a few extra Z’s, Anthony Miller caught passes.

With the threat of Hurricane Idalia closing schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, area student-athletes were able to sleep in.

Then there was Miller, who, no doubt, had to look up the definition. Hitting the snooze button a few dozen times is OK for the other guy. Just not for the Riverview Rams sophomore, whose morning ritual includes beating the sunrise off the line of scrimmage.

Week 2 predictions: High school football: Sarasota and Manatee previews and predictions for Week 2

Weekly rankings: Venice, Cardinal Mooney top Manatee, Sarasota high school football rankings after Week 1

It’s been that way since the 16-year-old started playing flag football at age 5, settling under center at quarterback, and remaining there. It was then that his dad, Mark, the captain and quarterback of his high-school team, and later, a wrestler at Villanova University via scholarship, began throwing the football with his son each day before school.

On the field at 6:30 a.m.

There wasn’t school on Tuesday, but there was the throwing and catching tandem of Anthony and Mark Miller, looking tiny on the vast expanse of the Ram Bowl. The two arrived about 6:30 a.m., as they do every day, and left an hour later. In between, as he’s done now for 11 years, Mark served as his son’s receiver, though, at 58, the “running” part of his route-running is but a memory.

Instead, dad will stand at various points on the field, simulating a particular route, and the 5-foot-9, 175-pounder will deliver him the ball.

“That’s what he’s always done for me,” Anthony said.

Dad had been his son’s coach at every youth level, and combined with the knowledge gleaned playing QB in high school, Mark Miller knows exactly what he wants these drills to accomplish.

“I want Anthony to be able to throw accurately anywhere on the field,” he said. “We literally will cover from the goalline out about 65 yards, and he’ll hit almost every single spot on the field during a workout.”

Mark Miller stops tossing the football long enough to paraphrase Alabama head coach Nick Saban, whose words could serve as Anthony Miller’s blueprint for success.

“Saban said, ‘If you want to be the best, you don’t really have that many choices,’’’ Mark Miller said. ‘“It takes what it takes. And are you willing to do it?’ And Anthony is driven. Big time.”

More: 2023 weekly high school football schedules and scores for Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties

He’s driven, because he’s sure if he stays that way, his dream will be at the end of what now must seem like an endless highway.

“This is my dream and my goal,” Anthony said. “This is what I want to do. My dad didn’t force me to do anything. He wants me to make my own decisions. It’s not right if it’s forced.”

He’s been in a Ram uniform for just one regular-season game, but already, Anthony Miller has created a lasting impression on head coach Josh Smithers. He’s sure of it. There’s no way anyone could outwork him. He’s labeled Miller the hardest-working player he’s ever coached.”

Unbelievable work ethic

“The kid’s work ethic is just unbelievable,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone work like this.”

Indeed, one wonders if there’s any perceptible chink in Miller’s gridiron armor. At Riverview, he carries a 4.5 GPA. Smithers said he might be the Rams’ strongest player in the squat.

At a recent quarterback long-ball challenge, Miller won it with a throw rocketing 73 yards, five yards farther than the best toss of Trever Jackson, the QB from Orlando Jones High, who on Tuesday committed to play for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. Mark said his son can throw the ball 65 yards rolling to his left or right.

Playing quarterback since age 5 in flag football, Under Armour, and i9, Anthony, his dad said, won 97 straight games, including an Under Armour national championship. At an IMG showcase/combine, sponsored by Prep Redzone and attended by 150 of the country’s best high-school players, Miller took first in the broad jump, leaping 9 feet, 6 inches, second in the short shuttle, and third in the L-Drill, also known as the 3-cone drill. It measures a player’s change of direction, agility, and balance.

Moving targets: See which high school quarterbacks are on the move entering the fall

Overseeing the broad jump was former NFL safety Kenny Stills, who was so astounded by Miller’s jump, that he made him do it a second time. Stills told Mark Miller that the broad jump is the best indicator of explosiveness in an athlete.

Combining Anthony’s work ethic, arm strength, leadership ability, and even-keeled demeanor, Smithers often can’t believe so much good can be found in a 16-year-old sophomore.

“I introduced him to college coaches in the spring,” he said, “and I’d say, ‘I think this kid is half human, half machine.’ It’s almost like it’s not possible.”

Which also could articulate Smithers’ feelings when Miller arrived at the doors of Riverview High after one year at Venice. He had played for the Venice Vikings youth team, his dad had gotten the job as the Vikings’ head coach, and Mark and Anthony had developed a friendship with then Venice High quarterbacks coach Brian Ryals.

All these factors convinced Anthony to put Venice at the top of his high school list. Via Twitter, he reached out to head coach John Peacock, asking if he’d be given a fair shot to beat out Brooks Bentley for the starting QB job. Told by Peacock that he would, Miller enrolled.

His first practice for Venice painted an entirely different picture. Miller got perhaps one or two snaps, with Bentley getting a majority of them.

“It wasn’t really a fair competition,” Miller said. “With (Peacock’s assurance), and the confidence I have in my game, I felt that if I did have that fair competition and take time to learn the offense and my role, I would have had a lot of success.”

As a freshman, he attempted just six passes

In his one year at Venice, Miller’s role wasn’t a starring one. He got in five games, completing 1-of-6 for 14 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions. He also ran it 15 times for 46 yards. Hardly the impact Miller expected to make.

“I had been concerned about it,” he said, “but then accepted the fact that there’s not much you can do. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get a fair shot at that No. 1 spot.”

In the offseason, Miller asked himself if it was worth staying at Venice, particularly knowing Peacock liked to bring in upper-class transfers to play quarterback.

In his mind, it wasn’t. “I think (Peacock) feels really bad that he lost Anthony,” Mark said, “because he knows what he lost. And I think he knows he mishandled the situation. If I had it all to do over again, I’d have had him here last year.”

Miller was a big fan of the air-raid offense orchestrated by Ram offensive coordinator Brody Wiseman. “I decided it might be a good idea to go there,” Miller said.

But after transfer Braxton Thomas won the QB job, Wiseman went to Smithers with the plan to utilize Miller’s quick feet and sure hands at the H receiver, which lines up off the line of scrimmage.

Accounts for three scores in the opener

In Riverview’s season opener, a 54-0 victory over Southeast, Miller caught two touchdown passes from Thomas, and from his H receiver position, threw for a score.

“I’d play Anthony anywhere on the field because I trust his ability to get the job done with whatever we are asking him to do,” Wiseman said. “His ability to adapt has opened the door to allow us to do some really creative things on offense, and it has put him in a position to showcase how versatile he is.”

And while he may not be Riverview’s starter at quarterback, Miller is happy to contribute any way he can. This season, that might come via a long field goal. He can do that as well.

“He’s already shown his impact, and to be able to do so much,” said Smithers, who said Miller will be the team’s starter entering spring next year.

The start of Miller time.

“Anthony will be our quarterback. It’s his job to lose, but you’re going to have to work your butt off to do it.”

The thing is, no one knows more about that than Anthony Miller.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Riverview High football player Anthony Miller finds new home, new position